Honored Members

Members Retire in 2015

CAROL STINES retires from Phoenix Christian Preparatory School at the end of June, 2015.

June 30, 2015 marks the last day of Carol Stines’s tenure as the Director of International Programs at Phoenix Christian Preparatory School in Phoenix. She moves on now, into other interesting arenas, volunteering and traveling to enrich her life. Here’s what she told us about herself.

“I’m a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of U.C. Berkeley. At Cal I majored in Spanish and minored in Latin. After graduation I worked for Connecticut General Insurance for almost a year. Then I went to Tokyo to teach English and also learned Japanese while there. After returning from Japan I married and had two children. I worked for the IRS for a short time. I then went to graduate school at San Jose State University to earn a California Teaching Credential. I taught at Christian Community Academy in San Jose, California for 8 years and was part Admin. We moved to Phoenix in 1993 and I began at Phoenix Christian. I built up the foreign language department to include Spanish I – AP and also French 1 and 2. Each summer I would take groups of students abroad. I became Director of International Programs in June 2005 and built up that program. We are now averaging 40 int’l students each year.

“Career Highlights: Modeling in Japan, becoming a wife and mom, seeing the international department at Phoenix Christian grow.

“Field of Int’l Education: It seems to change as the economies of the home countries change. Also, English language education in Korea and China seems to have improved.

“Words of Wisdom: you have to be all three: a people person, a big idea person and a very detailed person.

“Retirement plans: continue to volunteer at the Y and also begin to volunteer other places, perhaps work part time, some traveling.” Carol Stines, May 2015.

KEN BUS retires from Glendale Community College in June, 2015

After 21 years as Director of International Education at Glendale Community College, Ken Bus retires on June 25, 2015. He will continue some of his work in international education, but plans to pursue some exciting new endeavors, including genealogy, his hobbies of reading, gardening, wood carving, home improvement projects, and seeing to a new love in his life, Alma his precious new grandchild. Here’s what he told us about himself.

“I have been pursuing a career in international education since 1972. That was the year I graduated from college with a BA in English and ESL from the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign, IL and I went immediately into a graduate program in teaching ESL with the same institution. The MA program I was accepted into was a two-year “TEFL Internship Program” in partnership with Tehran University in Tehran, Iran. In exchange for two years of coursework and practice teaching in Tehran University I would earn an MA degree with free tuition, airfare, and a housing and living stipend in Tehran. I was very intrigued, but also a bit apprehensive about going to such a faraway place with an exotic language and culture in a part of the world I knew little about– not to mention the fact that in my 22 years I had never left North America and had never even been on an airplane. Later that summer I found myself on a trip from Chicago to London to Paris to Istanbul and finally to Tehran. I got the foreign expat lifestyle bug and ended up staying 13 years in the Middle East– 4 years in Iran and then 9 years in Saudi Arabia. I met my wife, Mary Jane Onnen in Tehran and we have now been married almost 38 years. We both got jobs working for the Arabian American Oil Company (ARAMCO) in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. Our three daughters were born in Saudi Arabia.

“When we returned as a family to the USA from Saudi Arabia in 1986, I found a job as the assistant director of the Intensive English Language Institute at the University of North Texas in Denton, TX. I stayed there just a year, but it was my first exposure to the world of international student intensive English programs, I-20s, nonimmigrant visas, immigration status and the whole sphere of NAFSA activities. I then got hired as the assistant director of international student affairs at Texas Christian University (TCU) in Fort Worth, TX. At TCU I was lucky to be able to round out my experience with international student advising, programming, admissions, and recruiting. TCU sent me on the “Linden Tour” trips to all kinds of foreign destinations in Asia, South and Central America, the Middle East and Europe. I gained wonderful exposure to international high schools and universities and their respective educational systems. It was a very hard decision for me to leave TCU after seven wonderful years there, but I did so when I saw a posting to head up a brand new program in Glendale Community College (GCC) in Glendale, Arizona. I was no stranger to Arizona and I even had some cousins who were at that time police officers with the Glendale, AZ PD. I called them up to chat about the area. I was interviewed by GCC’s hiring committee by phone. They proposed that we meet in person at the NAFSA Conference in Miami Beach, FL that year. I met a dean from GCC there and was offered the job. I moved my family from Fort Worth, TX to Peoria, AZ in July 1994. I have been at GCC ever since, starting up the International Education Program and attracting students to it from all over the world. At GCC I have been guided by two major objectives– to bring more students to GCC from all over the world and to provide them with high quality services. My motto and guiding principle is, “Always help a student.” I strive to do this.

“This year, 2015, marks my 21st and final year at GCC. I am very proud that the enrollment of international students at GCC right now is at an all-time high of 180+ students. I feel that the program has put GCC “on the map” internationally and that we have hosted many wonderful, bright, memorable students over the years and have given them a chance to access American higher education through the community college system. I have traveled the world representing GCC and spreading the community college message. I am particularly pleased that many students have responded to that message and have been very successful in moving on from GCC to earn undergraduate degrees, masters and doctorates and take up rewarding careers in their chosen field of study.

“One highlight of my career was my selection in 2007 to participate in a Fulbright International Education Administrators program in Germany. I subsequently was invited to become a Fulbright Ambassador and have been an active advocate of the Fulbright program– a bright shining star of American diplomacy. Another highlight was my involvement with professional organizations including NAFSA, AACC, AACRAO, and AIE. While I will be transitioning out of my job at GCC and my role as NAFSA State Representative for Arizona, I intend to stay active in the Fulbright Association and in AIE–Arizona International Educators. There is still work to be done and I hope to contribute in some meaningful way. I will miss my students and my colleagues and friends all over the country but it is time to move on and work on other projects.

“I have always been fascinated by genealogy and one of the goals I have in retirement is to finish up and publish the research I have done on my family and my wife’s family. I am considering becoming a certified genealogist through a program at Boston University. I will get to spend more time with my family, with our new granddaughter, and with my other hobbies of reading, gardening, wood carving, and home improvement projects. We will keep our home in Peoria on a lake called “Desert Harbor” where I enjoy fishing and boating. And we now have a home in Flagstaff where we go to escape the summer heat and to enjoy the winter fun. My best wishes to all of my colleagues in Arizona International Educators.” Ken Bus, May 2015.